Thursday, March 27, 2014

Paying for College: Words of Wisdom

Monday starts and Block Calendar scheduling can be unfamiliar
concepts for new students and can create confusion for those who aren't
familiar with the terminology. The following list of words and phrases
are unique to Rio Salado College and will help new students navigate the
registration and financial aid processes.

Academic Program – A prescribed series of classes designed for a specific degree, certificate, or other credential.

Program Seeker –Students who have declared a Rio Salado
certificate, degree or transfer program in my.maricopa.edu, ESF
(Electronic Student File), or by talking to an advisor.

Non-Program Seekers – Students who have not declared a Rio
Salado certificate, degree or transfer program. Students who take a la
carte classes for transfer to another college or university program are
NOT classified as program seekers at Rio Salado College.

Excluded Program – Declared programs that are excluded from
the program seeker qualification. Examples include: Dual enrollment,
educational service partnerships, and non-credit programs.

Note: Federal regulations require students to commit to an eligible academic program to qualify for financial aid.

Block Calendar System
– exclusive to Rio Salado College, the block calendar system uses
semester blocks to provide students with flexibility in class
scheduling.

Academic Term – Academic Terms are similar to semesters at other colleges. Rio Salado has a Fall, Spring and Summer term.

Semester Block –Each term is broken into semester blocks.
Each semester block has a start date and a corresponding end date.
Students choose from the available semester blocks to customize when
their semester will start and end.

Term Block – Semester blocks are sometimes referred to as term blocks.

Semester Block Start Date – The date on which a semester block starts.

Semester Block End Date – The designated end date of a semester block.

Class Start Date- The designated start date listed for the
class (typically a Monday). Students may choose multiple course start
dates within their selected semester block.

Course End Date – The last day on which course materials may be submitted.

Out of Block – Classes that do not start AND end within the
timeframe of the selected semester block. Classes for the next term that
are scheduled to start before the student’s current semester block is
scheduled to end are also considered Out of Block.

Semester blocks may not overlap from one term to the next. Students may find their next available block using the Block Calendar Widget.